Headphone amps to build or buy

For anything about cans, and the amplifiers that drive them
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ed
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#31 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by ed »

very keen to hear your thoughts on the T50s when youve go a feel for them.....

I stiill use the superlux phones for the hifi, which I'm fairly happy with... but am increasingly unhappy with the sennheiser 205s which I use for tracking in the studio setup. The sennheisers are truly uncomfortable after half an hour(they grip too tightly).

I was looking at the T50s a while back...how are they for comfort and how are they for leakage(you might need an assisatnt)?????
They may be suited for both uses in my case(hifi and studio).
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#32 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by Ant »

Ill let you know when ive spent some more time with them ed, im impressed so far with them
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#33 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by Ant »

Little review of the fostex t50rp mk3 after spending some time with them

I find these to be very very good for me. I value transparency very highly, the ability to pick an instrument, voice, the triangle in the back of the mix, whatever, and follow it, and be able to instantly switch to something else and follow that instead but not lose the other parts of the track.
These do that very well.
Tone, texture. Whatever you want to call it is very good too, all parts sound natural. Bass guitar tone is very good indeed, im listening to 2112, farewell to kings and hemispheres at the moment and geddy lees bass is right there and all the string tone is spot on.

Voices are spot on, neal pearts drums are lacking a very slight bit of punch but are lightning fast with good decay to the strikes.

Cymbals are a little soft but are getting better with run in of the cans. The p7 cymbals are better but the fostexs are getting there nicely.

Pianos are very slightly off with the mixed harmonics of multiple keys at the same time but again are getting better with some running in.

I am finding them easy to listen to because separation and transparency are very very good, better than any of the other cans i have, which incidentally are all closed back which is probably why.
There is no harshness either, the top end is very sweet and is getting better. The m2s can be provoked into harshness which i dont like but will put up with when im out and about

They keep getting better every time i listen to them, they havent plateaued yet so theres abit more to come from them.

They need some poke up them though, i tried them with the 3.5mm jack cable into the phone and they were crap. Flat and no dynamics. They need a kick up the arse with a good headphone amp and they come alive. Tonys wad hd83 has the necessary boot

As for comfort, they arent bad but the sennheiser over ear m2s have them beat easily, the p7s are also better. The ear pads are quite thin but they dont clamp all that tightly so are ok. After about an hour and a half they are starting to become uncomfortable where the arms of my glasses are. Ears get a bit warm too but not overly so. They are nice and light though and the padding on the head band is nice and thick so hasn't bothered me even with my short balding hair

The sound leak isnt bad either, but other people in the room can make out what you are listening to if they are within 4 feet. Nobody can hear the p7s and can barely hear the m2s

Isolation from extraneous noise isnt great, people in the room can talk to you and you can answer.

But thats not an issue for me as these are used upstairs with the headphone rig, not downstairs with the main hifi.

I am impressed.

Im keeping these upstairs for 'proper' listening with the headphone rig, the p7s with the astell and kern dac and phone for downstairs when i get told off for being antisocial, vecause they are velvety smooth and block out practically everything, and the m2s for use when out walking or shopping, or on public transport. Because im not walking around the local shitholes with the p7s on and the m2s are not far off as good.

The p5s and m1s are open use for anyone else in the house...

Onwards!
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#34 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by Ant »

Havent used the headphones for around a month because the usb port on the tablet i was using has gone abit wonky.
So thats gone downstairs to act as the interface for the WiiM mini i bought.

While tidying out a cupboard of a load of the packaging boxes for things that ive kept 'just in case', i found an old project phono box se that i cant remember where it came from. So, ive stuck one if my spare carts, an audio technica at-f7 on the jvc ql-y3f i fixed up.

Abit of faffing later to find some space, and i have a nice little vinyl and headphone rig.

Who would like to place a bet on how long it is before i start wanting a better cart or messing with other decks in this rig.
Already eyeing up fitting an sme 309 onto the sl150 and trying that. ....

Sounds pretty good, so im going to have a listen to some pat metheney until the formula 1 race at jeddah comes on the radio at 5

Onwards!
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#35 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by Ant »

Decided to try the xerxes upstairs with the headphones as it wasnt getting any use as i ran out of space for the power supply and the 110v step down transformer for it. Seemed like abit of a waste.
Stuck the dv20x2h on it
It really does sound lovely through the cans.
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#36 Re: Headphone amps to build or buy

Unread post by Ant »

Picked up some hifiman deva planars for very little money.
They appeared on ebay with a stupidly low buy it now price, had been on for about 10 minutes when i saw them so i grabbed them.
No bluetooth adapter contributed to the stupid low price, but i wanted wired anyway so that bit was irrelevant. I have a tiny little astell and kern bluetooth dac anyway, and quite why anyone would want to go anywhere using open backed headphones in public i dont know.
Might have to sell off the t50s.

These things sound fantastic.
Happy bunny
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